We often celebrate Subaru for its impressive lineup of adventure-ready vehicles. More recently, though, this Japan-based carmaker is working to boost its reputation as a leading vehicle safety brand too. Subaru now says that its long-term strategy is to eliminate vehicle fatalities by 2030. But how does Subaru plan to achieve this goal?

Subaru’s approach to making safer vehicles 

Subaru’s ultimate safety goal is to reduce the number of fatal accidents resulting from collisions with Subaru vehicles to zero. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the carmaker is planning to make its vehicle lineup completely autonomous. Instead, Subaru is planning to “respect what humans are good at and leave what humans are not good at to automobiles for safe transportation.” With this idea in mind, the carmaker will enhance its driver-assist technology, EyeSight.

Subaru initially launched its Eyesight safety suite for the U.S. Market in 2012. For 2020, U.S. Eyesight features include pre-collision braking, adaptive cruise control, and lane-departure and sway warning. To take its advanced safety equipment to the next level, Subaru is partnering with Xilinx, a tech company based in Silicon Valley. Together, the two organizations will launch the upgraded EyeSight system in Japan first, as AutoNews reported.

More Self-driving tech features coming to Japan

The core of Subaru’s EyeSight technology is its stereo camera. Xilinx’s tech features will play a massive role in improving the Eyesight stereo camera. Subaru has already been working to enhance its stereo camera to recognize different objects better.  

With the help of Xilinx, the camera will be able to identify images as “3D point clouds.” The Xilinx tech will help Subaru vehicles react more appropriately to various instances on the road and enable Level 2 semi-autonomous driving capability. The new EyeSight tech will be available on the new 2021 Subaru Levorg Wagon, which will only be available in the Japanese market. However, Subaru is making plans to bring its unique safety features to the U.S.

“We do have a schedule internally, and we are developing these products for the U.S. market,” Eiji Shibata, general manager of advanced safety said. “I believe that in the near future, we can bring that to the U.S. market, as well. However, not all these functions can be brought as they are to the U.S. roads. We want to make sure that we develop these functions specifically for the U.S. road situation, as well, and then bring them to the U.S. market as they become ready.

AutoNews

Subaru’s current safety rankings

Subaru models, including the Forester and the Outback, have earned outstanding safety ratings from the IIHS. Respected critics also consider the carmaker’s EyeSight safety features to be among the best on the market today. However, some Subaru models are more accident-prone. The IIHS also gave Subaru’s Crosstrek compact crossover excellent crash-test safety scores, but this model also has the highest accident-prone rating, according to Insurify. The WRX sports sedan is also one of the most accident-prone models.